NC controlled tape lamination machines may be used in the automotive, marine and aerospace industries to layup composite structures formed from strips of composite tape. Continuous lengths of the tape are dispensed from rolls to a tape application head which cuts the tape to length “on the fly” as the application head lays down the tape over layup tooling.
The rolls of the composite tape are produced by cutting lengths of composite material to a desired width using a tape slitting machine. The composite material may be fed from a supply roll through one or more cutters that slit the composite material to the desired width. The cutters may be adjusted so as to produce tapes of the same or differing widths. A desired tape width is achieved by setting the cutters to a width position that approximates the desired tape width, and running a sample length of material through the slitter. The machine is then stopped and a length of the slit tape is removed and hand measured to determine the actual width of the tape. Based on this hand measurement, the cutters are adjusted and a second sample length is cut and hand measured. The process of hand measuring samples and adjusting the cutters is continued until a desired tape width is achieved.
The measurement method described above may be slow, subject to inaccuracy and may be wasteful since the unused lengths of tape required to set-up the cutters are scrapped. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for measuring the width of composite tape that eliminates the problems discussed above, and allows rapid, continuous, precise measurement of tape width during the slitting process. Embodiments of the disclosure are intended to satisfy this need.